issuingordersfandomcom-20200214-history
Browning .30 Machinegun
The Browning M1919 is a .30 caliber medium machine gun family widely used during the 20th century. It was used as a light infantry, coaxial, mounted, aircraft, and anti-aircraft machine gun by the U.S. and many other countries, especially during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Although it began to be superseded by newer designs in the later half of the century (such as by the M60 machine gun), it remained in use in many North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries and elsewhere for much longer. Many M1919s were rechambered for the new 7.62 × 51 mm NATO round and served into the 1990s, as well as up to the present day in some countries. The United States Navy also converted many to 7.62 mm NATO, and designated them Mk 21 Mod 0; they were commonly used on river craft in the 1960s and 1970s in Vietnam. General Information As an infantry weapon, it was usually crew operated by two soldiers: the gunner, who carried the tripod and ammunition; and the assistant gunner, who carried the weapon, spare parts, and sometimes more ammunition and when in action, fed the ammunition belts into the gun to ensure smooth entry of each round in the belt, decreasing the chance of the weapon jamming. The original idea was to allow the gun to be more easily packed for transport, and featured a light barrel and bipod when first introduced as the M1919A1. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that the gun was too heavy to be easily moved, while at the same time too light for sustained fire. This led to the M1919A2, which included a heavier barrel and tripod, and could be continuously fired for longer durations. The A5 was an adaptation of the A4 with a forward mounting point to allow it to be mounted in tanks and armored cars. This, along with the M37 and the Browning M2 machine gun, was the most common secondary armament during World War II for the Allies. Service during WWII Another version of the M1919A4, the M1919A6, was an attempt to make the weapon easier to carry by reducing its weight and to make use of a bipod, but it turned out to be heavier at 32 lbs (15 kg) and was considered "substitute standard". With its bipod and stock, it actually weighed more than the A4 by itself, but less than the A4 with its tripod. It was still used extensively, however, by allied troops during World War II and the Korean War. The main differences were a folding bipod mounted on the front of the gun, a sheet-metal buttstock that was attached to the pistol-grip firing handle, a carrying handle, and a tapered barrel weighing 4 lbs (1.8 kg) instead of 7 lbs (3.2 kg) returning the weapon to an A1-like state. The Model 1919 was heavily re-worked to become the .30 caliber M2 aircraft machine gun. Key to aircraft use was weight. Unnecessary metal was removed from its components and, with the cooling effect of air rushing past the barrel from the plane's speed, the designers made the barrel thinner and hence lighter. As a result, the M2 weighed 2/3 that of the 1919A4 and the lightened mechanism gave it a higher rate of fire — pertinent to use where the target might be in range and in the line of sight for barely a second. Category: Allied Weapons